Where Every Day is Caturday

It all started way back when mice ate the silkworms being raised to make silk, so the farmers brought in a few cats.

Then, fishermen noticed they were able to make weather forecasts based on the cat’s behavior and considered cats good luck.

The cat population is now larger than the human population (around 100 peeps, number of kittehs unknown) on the island.

The human residents of Cat Island have a special reverence for cats, as you can see from their Island Shrine…

…and architecture

And apparently Mother Nature does too because, though it could have been a (coff)cat-astrophe(coff), all the cats are safe after the recent earthquake and tsunami.

In Japan, cats really do bring good fortune!

Thanks to alert reader Josh N. for pointing out this place exists. Cat Island Facts and Hover-factoids by Wikipedia. Kittens out and about and on the pier at the beginning and end of the post are by Yugoroyd. Cat Shrine images via Tofugu TV. Purrfect architecture by Hirano Sui and Yugoroyd. Want more? Visit the Japanese blog about island fishing and daily life. Hai!

Those cats are not safe after the quake. Only a couple of days ago it came out that they aren’t being fed properly. The fishermen who live there used to feed them scraps and tiny fish but are unable to do their usual job. Currently the cats are relying on donations of tinned cat food and are asking for help.

Cats have always been lucky for merchants in Japan. Have you ever seen the cat-with-a-paw-up-by-its face statues? They’re called “maneki-neko” (“beckoning cat”) statues. In Japan (and elsewhere in Asia, I think), the gesture for beckoning someone is overhand, rather than underhand, like ours. When a cat lifts its paw to rub its face, it resembles the gesture for calling someone to come (into your shop, for example). That’s why just about every shop or restaurant you see in Japan has a maneki-neko statue outside or in the window.